Anyone done this? Have very little korean so its going to be tricky, anywhere around thats fairly easy to stay at overnight friday and saturday? Preferably english speaking?
Plus anyone been riding it so far? Is it terrible?

Hey Ippy, I'll be there this weekend. I'm staying at http://www.mujuresort.com/english/acco/hotel_kook.asp It was only 60,000 a night. I'm getting there early Saturday and leaving Sunday afternoon. I surf and wakeboard, but have never snowboarded in my life. If you get tired of laughing at the Koreans and want to watch some Americans bust their a$$ look me up. I'll be registered under the name "Neeley".

unfortunately i havent found any info yet on how to get there, so ill probably have to wait till next weekend. Shame, i could have at least had you falling leaf like a champion!

Ill still see if i can get up there, but the last time i had to wait for UPS to deliver stuff, they didnt arrive till about 9pm. If they get to my house before 6.30 (they have 2 of my jackets and 1 pair of pants), then ill happy try and rock up there.

If i dont make it there, under no account be "a guy" about it. Dont point the board down the hill and see how it goes, youll have a sore arse for weeks

Actually i just posted something like this in another place so ill post it up for you so you dont charge in blind:

Quote:

Theres actually a standard of progression i went through. Im self taught though, so take it with a pinch of salt.

1. Learn to slip side down the hill (board is horizontal going across the mountain).
you basically slide down the hill controlling your heel edge first and then your toe edge.
This teaches you how to control the pressure for things like breaking.

2. Then once youve got a good feel for that, you can start letting the front foot slightly move into the fall line (i,e, point down the mountain a bit). You are 100% in control of how far youre comfortable with the speed, so dont feel you have tyo point it straight down). When you reach the speed your happy with, put some weight on the back leg to bring it back to the horizontal position. Now let the back leg glide down the mountain a bit until your happy and use the (previously) front foot to control the speed. This is called falling leaf because the shape your board makes as you work your way down a mountain is like a falling leaf.
What this is teaching you is how to ride a bit on your edge, and how to shift your weight to move the board the way you want to go (and obvioulsy how to break when youre actually moving).

Do this on both your heel side (back to the mountain) and toe side (facing the mountain), until youre comfortable then you can move onto the next step.

3. Garlands.

This is the trickiest step for most people and they never practice it anywhere near enough. Basically the important thing to recognise is you now have a front foot. Garlands involve you picking one and sticking to it for the time being.

So its almost like the falling leaf except one thing. Now instead of coming back on yourself as in the second part of the falling leaf and switching your feet around (as in your front foot is now your back foot), youre simply repeating that first part of the move. So you let the board drop a bit into the fall line, and then you use your back foot as a kind of rudder to control the speed and use the breaks to make it horizontal. You let it run a bit, then bring it horizontal, then let it run a bit again, then bring it horizontal.

You are basically going from one side of teh mountain to the other. This entire move is to prepare you to link a turn, so you cant practice it enough. Also you can be quite a bit more aggressive in letting the board drop into the fall line. Youll be picking up some nice speed, but so long as youve practiced the weight shift from the previous step enough, youll naturally have higher limits you can work with.

Anyway, once you hit the other side of the mountain, switch to the other edge (so if you rode on your heel, switch to your toe edge), then do it again until you hit the first side. Do this A LOT (especially on your toe side!!!). Its important to stress that you will be using the same front foot going both directions of the mountain. Dont change your feet.

PS. Psych test, imagine youre runnning up to a path of ice and youre going to skid on it! What foot is at the front? Mines my right (im whats known as goofy), most people are regular, so their left foot is their front foot. Pick one, make sure your bindings are set up for it and ride almost exclusively with that foot always leading (until you start to learn 'switch' riding).

Once you have this mastered, linking turns is much easier.
What you are doing here is learning to control your speed a bit more, and learning the fundamental weight shift required to get you into a turn. You will find that in the next step you can probably go from your heel edge to your toe edge, but find the toe edge to heel edge a little trickier. If this is the case just keep practicing your toe edge garlands.

5. Linking turns.

Now you have the weight shift down and you feel a bit more comfortable with your speed and arent falling very much (if at all), you will start to link turns. Linking turns is pretty much all about switching your edge. I have trouble explaining this because its something i just did. Hopefully by the point youve done a few hundred garlands youll be building up your confidence working towards that turn by dropping more into the fall line. At this point i think it would be better if an instructor actualy describes how to do it when you get there. BNot because its difficult, but because its pretty much just an edge change and a movement of your weight. Youll be almost there if youve done enough garlands, so you should just be able to see other people doing it and have a feel for it. But thatll do because i hgave to go teach now

There you go, now you know (if you can get through the jargon). Id also suggest you look up some of the terms on youtube just to get an idea of what im talking about. Hope to see you there! but if not, itll at least help you not bust your ass like i did my first time (or bust your shoulders as one of my friends did his first time - just from constantly trying to get up).

Hey, thanks for all the useful information, I really appreciate it. Today it's 57 degrees and it is supposed to be similar in Muju tomorrow, so it might be smarter waiting until next weekend. I don't know if that effects the skiing conditiions? Anyways, I'll take your advice, and let you know how it goes. If the place is any good, I'm sure I'll be going there several times over the boarding season. I have to get my moneys worth out of all this gear I bought! Have a good weekend, hope to see you there. Ty

Hey, thanks for all the useful information, I really appreciate it. Today it's 57 degrees and it is supposed to be similar in Muju tomorrow, so it might be smarter waiting until next weekend. I don't know if that effects the skiing conditiions? Anyways, I'll take your advice, and let you know how it goes. If the place is any good, I'm sure I'll be going there several times over the boarding season. I have to get my moneys worth out of all this gear I bought! Have a good weekend, hope to see you there. Ty

Yeah, I know how that feels counting down the time waiting on a package to arrive. I'm still a little worried about the warm weather. I doubt there is a lot of real snow now to beign with so with the warm weather will the manmade snow stick? I'm looking at the web cams and the runs look really empty, but I do see a little snow on the ground. We already paid for our room, so we're going no matter what.

i wouldnt worry, therell be no snow throughout the year plus itll still be pretty cold once you get up there. Have you seen the webcams mid way down? Lol. looks like autumn. Only the very top seems to have genuine snow, and who knows how deep that is Tell me how you get on!

Here's a follow up for Muju. A little tip for anyone planning on taking a bus. Once you get to Muju, the bus that takes you to the resort doesn't pick you up at the bus station. For some strange reason it picks you up maybe a block behind the terminal. There aren't any signs, but if you ask someone they will tell you how to get there. I don't speak any Korean, and I noticed more people in Muju speak a little bit of english. Ippy, thanks for the useful tips on learning how to snowboard. They gave me a starting point on what I should learn first instead of going full speed ahead. It made progressing a lot easier and quicker. On Saturday from 6:30-10:30 the longest I waited in line for a lift was 10 min. From 10:30-midnight there were no waits for the lifts. On Sunday from 12:00-4:30 there were no waits for lifts, and the slopes weren't very crowded. I noticed some spots on one of the intermediate slopes that had some grass showing, and on the one black diamond slope they had open there was one spot with some rocks visible. There wasn't much of a night life, but I was pretty tired from boarding. The rooms in Kookmin don't have beds, which I guess is normal for here, but I would pack an air matress next time. Overall it was a great weekend and I will definitely go back. Did you finally get your gear delivered Ippy?

dont have beds? What? Thats a hotel right? Are you meaning they have futons? Or are you meaning they literally have nothing but a floor? o_0???

And glad the tips helped, would rather show you in person of course, but good to see you made it to the second day. Not many people do on their first time

The gears now all here. The last bits (the hokkaido heavy gears), arrived today, (but looks ugly as hell, ah well, you buy online you take your chance).
will probably head up there this weekend just to have a scope of it. Apparently this weekend might be a bit colder, so it may be a bit more interesting and some of the base may actually hold. Not fancying gouging my nice new sierrascope. Any other interesting things you noticed. The more info the better. What time did you get there saturday and when were the buses? Did you see other smaller scale accommodation?

Shuttles depart the welcome center at 9:30am,1:00pm,3:30pm,6:00pm,8:40pm,10:30pmSchedule: 5a.m., Shuttles depart Muju terminal at 8a.m., 2p..m., 4:30p.m., 7:30p.m., 9:30a.m. (Times are shceduled to change.). It is best to check with the Resort to make sure the schedule is the same. Since this was my first time I don't know if this is normal, but the slopes close down from 4:30-6:30 for maintenance. I was thinking that the lines for the lifts were going to be like the subways with absoulutely zero politeness, but everybody seemed to make sure they weren't hitting anybody with poles or boards. Somebody slightly ran into me one time and apologized for for close to 10 minutes. I come from a background of surfing and wakeboarding where the bottom of your board generally doesn't get scratched up. At the end of the weekend our new boards have a good share of scratches. Again I don't know if this is normal, or if it was from the grass or rocky sections (There weren't a lot). There were also quite a few areas where it seemed like the snow had melted a little bit and formed large areas of ice. Call ahead and ask what types of discounts they offer for lift tickets. When we purchased our lift tickets it seemed like they were trying to find a way to give us a discount (There were several discounts). The resort has large lockers available so you can leave your stuff after you check out if you want to go snow boarding before you leave. Accomodations are extremely limited, and overpriced. I think there was one other place that had rooms but it wasn't near the resort. As for where we stayed, Kookmin hotel, there were no beds, and no futons. They give you a comforter, which they call a mattress, two tiny pillows, and a blanket. I'm not real picky when it comes to a place to sleep for a few hours, but a little more comfort would have been nice. The room itself was fairly clean, but the hallways looked awful. Have fun this weekend. After the madness of Christmass and New Years wears down, let me know and we'll plan something. Ty

cheers ty, unless theres some decent snowfall this weekend, i think ill skip it once again, dont really fancy ruining my base what with it being quite tough to fix Seems like its probably only 5 to 10cms of covering at most. I think ill hold back until they get some more. Snow shouldnt really be scratching your base up unless its made of rocks

How was muju itself (the town), was thinking if i mission there, ill probably find a place in the town and shuttle bus up to the resort in the morning?